. This view of his affairs yielded him great consolation; and the fact
deserves to be noted, as showing with what ease a good man may be consoled under
circumstances of failure and disappointment.
 

                                   Chapter V

Containing a Full Account of the Installation of Mr. Pecksniff's New Pupil into
   the Bosom of Mr. Pecksniff's Family. With All the Festivities Held on that
                Occasion, and the Great Enjoyment of Mr. Pinch.

The best of architects and land surveyors kept a horse, in whom the enemies
already mentioned more than once in these pages, pretended to detect a fanciful
resemblance to his master. Not in his outward person, for he was a raw-boned,
haggard horse, always on a much shorter allowance of corn than Mr. Pecksniff;
but in his moral character, wherein, said they, he was full of promise, but of
no performance. He was always, in a manner, going to go, and never going. When
at his slowest rate of travelling, he would sometimes lift up his legs so high,
and display such mighty action, that it was difficult to believe he was doing
less than fourteen miles an hour; and he was for ever so perfectly satisfied
with his own speed, and so little disconcerted by opportunities of comparing
himself with the fastest trotters, that the illusion was the more difficult of
resistance. He was a kind of animal who infused into the breasts of strangers a
lively sense of hope, and possessed all those who knew him better with a grim
despair. In what respect, having these points of character, he might be fairly
likened to his master, that good man's slanderers only can explain. But it is a
melancholy truth, and a deplorable instance of the uncharitableness of the
world, that they made the comparison.
    In this horse, and the hooded vehicle, whatever its proper name might be, to
which he was usually harnessed - it was more like a gig with a tumour, than
anything else - all Mr. Pinch's thoughts and wishes centred, one bright frosty
morning: for with this gallant equipage he was about to drive to Salisbury
alone, there to meet with the new pupil, and thence to bring him home in
triumph.
    Blessings on thy simple heart, Tom Pinch, how proudly dost thou button up
that scanty coat, called by a sad misnomer, for these many years, a great one;
and how thoroughly as with thy cheerful voice thou pleasantly adjurest Sam the
hostler not to let him go yet, dost thou believe that quadruped desires to go,
and would go if he
